It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I’m a huge Murky Coffee fan. It’s the best coffee I’ve ever had, anywhere, and I liked its independent status and the wit and passion of its owner, Nick Cho.

As a patron of their Arlington shop, I never knew much about their problems at the Capitol Hill location. I saw something on the Murky blog about tax problems, but assumed things would get better.

Apparently, they won’t.

I’ve always believed that Nick was a better barista than a businessman. I saw that reflected in the small neglected things in the shops. The quality of his product was so high, however, the following so loyal and his status as coffee icon in the national barista community so prominent, I figured it was a small price to pay that things were rough around the edges.

I’m sad that he’s having these struggles, and that his shop closed down. But what really broke my heart was this:

“I like the coffee business, because it brought people together and it was a community-building tool,” Cho said in a phone interview this week.

“I thought coffee would be up my alley, because I’m a people person.”

But now he’s also alone. His haphazard approach to finances has cost him his marriage, he said.

That last line breaks my heart. Particularly because I’ve read the story more than once, and Murky Coffee was born out of the love Nick’s wife has for coffee:

It all started because Nick Cho’s wife, Suzy, wanted a really good cup of coffee.

“We used to have these fights every Sunday because she wanted to stop at Starbucks on the way to church,” he says. In self-defense, he set out to prevent marital discord by learning how to make coffee. Great coffee.

Five years later, Cho has established himself in his home town as the founder and chief executive of Murky Coffee.

I, for one, am fervently hoping that whatever feud this has caused can be mended. I absolutely love Murky Coffee, but I’d gladly give up ever having it again if it could somehow contribute to the saving of their marriage.

Nick, if you read this, you guys are in my prayers.

Filed under: Coffee. Yum.